Callouts & quotes from 2,101+ activist slides

"Revealing language buried in Twist’s SEC filings confirms our belief that Twist is misclassifying manufacturing expenses as R&D - the kind of language that lawyers add in an attempt to cover-your-ass, which nonetheless conflicts with the CEO and CFO’s strong, unambiguous statements using the phrase “gross margin.”"

""We want to have co-tenants that are meaningful to us. So often times, we'll look at the home improvement chains or sporting goods stores where we believe we can share customers and siphon off some traffic from them. And with very few exceptions, we haven't gone off of that model." — CEO Conroy, Q3'22 Jan 27, 2022"

""too many layers make you very averse to risk." — Ann Moore, CEO of Time Inc. (quoted in text). "You have low-hanging fruit that you will be able to benefit from in the first 12 months. Then you have things that require significant changes in the way you do your business." — Dieter Zetsche, CEO of DaimlerChrysler."

""[We] have decided to reshape our company and stay true to our strategy. We plan to simplify BHP Billiton's portfolio with a demerger and unlock value for shareholders as we focus even more on our largest businesses, reduce costs and improve productivity more quickly...." — Andrew Mackenzie, CEO, February 18, 2014"

"Let me make one comment on the Speedway deal relative to that is we still believe we're going to get the benefit of integration. That's not lost because of the supply agreement that we have and the fact that we'll continue to be using our logistics assets. — Mike Hennigan, CEO of Marathon Petroleum, August 3, 2020"

""So pricing has essentially been flat for us. It's still a tough pricing environment. Although with leading -- many leading brands with a 50% share, we tend to be well positioned to put them in place if needed. So pricing, again, has tended to be pretty flat." — Ronald Lombardi, CEO, Q2 2020 Call, November 1, 2019"

"At BoxWorks...Our major announcement was the unveiling of Box Skills and Box Graph, 2 new ways we're bringing machine learning and AI to content in Box. We believe AI and machine learning will fundamentally change how we manage, secure and collaborate on content in the enterprise. — CEO Aaron Levie, November 2017"

"And again, I want to emphasize that as we look at this $2 billion objective, this is coming from every one of the divisions. This has got to be a broad front approach, it's going to be a broad front attack, every division has to be able to perform up to expectations. — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, March 2014"

"Our International business makes up about 10% of our sales. It's highly concentrated with over 50% of International sales in Australia, primarily from 3 well positioned brands that we have there: Hydralyte, FESS nasal sprays and Murine eye care in excess of 20%. — Ron Lombardi, CEO, Q3 2020 Call February 6, 2020"

"NetQin feels very sorry about the stockholders' loss due to the great decline of stock price. However, the loss was caused by the defamatory comments made by Muddy Waters; therefore, NetQin has taken legal action in Beijing to sue Muddy Waters and the report's writer. --NetQin CEO Lin (Source: The Beijing News)"

"NQ Yu Lin: Who says farmers cannot program? Poor people can also have the Chinese dream! They are pointing at the CEO of one of our sub companies, Ruide. The CEO himself will sue Muddy Waters for it. He is a computer science major college graduate. I'd say he has higher education than Steve Jobs and Bill Gates."

"We're also adjusting the timeline by which we expect to achieve our longer-term margin targets laid out at our December 2020 Investor Day.... We remain committed to 60% gross margin and 31% adjusted EBITDA margin, and we'll provide an update on timing in 2023... — CEO Jeff Simmons Q2 2022 Earnings Call 8/8/2022"

""Our strategy is a transformational change into a midstream logistics company..." — Greg Garland, Phillips 66 CEO; "I think Midstream will certainly continue to be a growth vehicle for us... I think Refining is a good business. It's just -- long term, I just don't see it growing" — Greg Garland, Phillips 66 CEO"

"“There’s a very insular circle of Egyptians at the top: the CEO, Tamer, Magdy, Waleed’s sister, runs the lung business. It seems to be a similar Egyptian circle among their highest-volume users, this guy at Houston Methodist, Mark Ghobrial is Egyptian.” — Executive at a West Coast OPO, longtime industry veteran"

"“OIG recently announced that they’re going to investigate every single OPO, and they’re going to investigate every single transplant program, and it’s going to happen by the end of 2025... I’ve been overcharging the whole time.” — CEO of a major OPO (Organ Procurement Organization), longtime industry executive"

"Outside these transitory issues, we believe our business continues to build momentum. We now have 10 large customers for our AIML lifecycle services, which we believe will increase their spend with us in 2023, some significantly, based on our current line of sight. — Jack Abuhoff (CEO, INOD 3Q22 earnings call)"

"CEO Adnani is classic entrepreneur in our view who is self-assured with grand ambitions supported by highly promotional claims. However, we are further troubled by his judgement and association with a web troubling business relationships. Further, his time is distracted with two other public company ventures."

"The CEO said very offensive and culturally derogatory statements to multiple of my female coworkers of color. — Glassdoor Review. No one speaks about the cult that the CEOs and Head of HR were apart of, which is interesting because several tactics from the cult are used to run the agency. — Glassdoor Review."

""And our CEO and company founder Udo Müller is someone who started to consolidate the outdoor advertising market – I think it was 25 years ago. He is an exceptionally gifted deal-maker and for him, every week that goes by without him buying a company or closing a deal, is a week wasted." — Christian Schmalzl"

"Our strategy is a transformational change into a midstream logistics company... — Greg Garland, Phillips 66 CEO; I think Midstream will certainly continue to be a growth vehicle for us... I think Refining is a good business. It's just -- long term, I just don't see it growing — Greg Garland, Phillips 66 CEO"

"In terms of her role, [redacted] was instructed directly by the CEO, Emily, that [redacted] should not disclose the operational business positions or details to her directly. She wants to be the only channel to talk to her on the business side.” — Ex-Twist employee involved with Twist’s activities in China"

"While Nuvei was promoting the acquisition of SafeCharge as transformative and creating a global leader with "massive scale and reach", the CEO of SafeCharge made statements to the local Israeli media saying the "market was saturated with competition and regulation", and that consolidation was a good move."

"Spruce Point believes that investors should take the CEO’s claims that SORT® will be a major contributor to revenue and EBITDA with a grain of salt. It is currently being given away for free. We believe that converting users accustomed to paying nothing into customers paying something is an uphill battle."

""While the revenue came in the quarter was strong, the overall performance of the sales organization and specifically new sales activity in the second quarter was unacceptable. The management team and I have spent the past month restructuring the global sales function" — CEO Siebel (2Q'22 Conference Call)"

""...we've seen our market share continue to grow... given our track record of success in helping companies more efficiently manage their healthcare spend while simultaneously enhancing the patient experience through our superior clinical outcomes." — CEO Peter Anevski on PGNY Q3 2022 Earnings Call 11/3/22"

""...a growing level of excitement among our team and our board about this [PDN] opportunity. So, I would say we are, with each passing month, we get, the more psyched internally about the ability to enter this market and grow a meaningful and defensible business..." — Keith Grossman, CEO, comments 11/5/20"

"Last month, Danimer Scientific's own Dr. Isao Noda traveled to Dubai and attended the Global Bottled Water Congress along with existing partners Maurizio Patarnello, CEO and Chairman of Nestlé Waters, and Simon Lowden, President and Chief Marketing Officer of Global Foods at PepsiCo (pictured). — Facebook"

"Spruce Point believes it is time for significant change at Kratos (Nasdaq: KTOS). Based on our research suggesting abysmal financial and compliance failures leading to a recent criminal conviction of a senior Kratos Director, we are calling for the resignation of its CEO Eric Demarco and CFO Deanna Lund."

"This [recent cost cutting] move is part of a larger effort to simplify our management structure, speed decision making and reduce costs. We are reallocating our workload and assets in order to invest in areas of higher growth, including online and new launches. — Ann Moore, Chairman and CEO of Publishing"

"Second, we had favorability of approximately $7 million or $0.02 in relation to reducing the earn out for our Passport acquisition within our SPD business. We are still happy with our entry into the food-safety business and the diversification that it offers our SPD division — CEO Q2 2019 Conference Call"

"John Hughes has multiple LinkedIn profiles. Hughes appeared as part of the Pivotal Payments management team up until March 2019 as SVP, Strategic Accounts Group. His biography says he was CEO/Co-Founder of Base Commerce. We find it unusual that he was no longer a part of the top management team pre-IPO."

"Poor Controls over Equity Grants: That the board did not become aware until several years after the fact that multiple grants to the CEO were in violation of the Company's incentive plans indicates that it did not have adequate controls in place to monitor the Company's executive compensation practices."

"“Our investment thesis is simple, we are a team of operators and we’ll build lasting shareholder value through consistent NOI growth” — CEO (BRX first earnings call). “10th consecutive quarter of SS NOI growth in excess of 3.5%. “No other sector peer can make this statement”” — CEO (4Q14 earnings call)."

"“over the past four years, we ordered approximately one billion base pairs of synthetic DNA from Twist” — Ginkgo CEO. “20 different companies developing different technologies which have proof of principle...or have the potential to compete quite dramatically with Twist.” — Early and key Twist customer."

"KLA is working on it...NuFlare is working on a tool and ASML has a division where they’re working on a multi-beam inspection tool...which means it has much better throughput compared to the Holon inspection tool. — Longtime, senior semicap equipment executive in Japan who is friendly with Lasertec’s CEO"

"Disney's non-management Directors comprise current and former CEOs of some of the largest companies in the world, but they collectively own only ~$15 million of Disney stock – representing just 0.008% of Disney's shares outstanding and much of which was received as Director's fees paid in Disney shares"

"Disney’s non-management Directors comprise current and former CEOs of some of the largest companies in the world, but they collectively own only ~$15 million of Disney stock - representing just 0.008% of Disney’s shares outstanding and much of which was received as Director’s fees paid in Disney shares"

"a lot of people are very pissed off with the company...a lot of people are very pissed off because they are acting too greedy and predatory. I really support that letter from that Congressman. Again, a lot of people in different transplant centers are very pissed off.... I can tell you, I hate the CEO."

"I have tens of thousands of people selling with us around the market today at -- with the Microsoft Azure team. I have 4,000 professionals selling with us at Google Cloud and Thomas Kurian. I have 12,000 people selling with us in oil gas from Baker Hughes. — CEO Siebel, Needham Conference, Jan 11, 2022"

"The 2 legacy companies are functioning as one, and the excitement and the focus demonstrated by our employees has enabled the Flexibles business to simultaneously grow organically and to surpass the synergy targets we originally set for the first 6 months of the year. — CEO Delia Conf Call Feb 11, 2020"

"Independent Board representatives that will: Run a process to hire the best CEO and executive team, Set proper performance targets and incentivize and compensate management appropriately, Monitor and review the performance & strategy of the new leadership team, Hold the new leadership team accountable"

"I personally stand by and guarantee that the audited financial statements in the reports filed are accurate, and any material connected parties’ transactions have been disclosed in our management discussions and analysis. — Allen Chan, Sino-Forest Chairman / CEO on TRE’s June 14, 2011 conference call."

"“Carving out [...] NetCo [...] and then selling it, is, according to us, incorrect, misguided, and would destabilize the future of TIM [...] Employees will suffer. Suppliers will suffer. The whole country will suffer since the NRRP will not be relentlessly executed” — Merlyn CEO Designate (27/10/2023)"

"“We (will) consider divesting of brands or products that generate five billion yen or less in sales, that have a profit margin of less than 15%, and that have no growth potential... We aim to complete this selection process within one to two years.” — Yoshihiro Hasebe, June 2021 Small Meeting with CEO"

"“We estimate Zillow participated in approximately 360,000 customer transactions with both buyers and sellers in 2021, which is the first time we reported this metric. We anticipate providing this metric for 2022 in a future quarter.” — Zillow 2022 10-K; “Oh, my, so much blue ocean.” — CEO Rich Barton"

"Ronald McCray's biography understates his level of involvement with Career Education Corporation (currently doing business as Perdoceo Education Corp. NYSE:PRDO), a highly controversial operator of for-profit colleges and universities, only noting that he was involved with Career Education in 2015."

"Looking at our mix, e-commerce represented approximately 80% of our total volume in the fourth quarter, which compares sequentially to 75% in the third quarter and 70% in the second quarter. For the full year 2020, e-commerce accounted for approximately 76% of our total volume. — CEO Fayer, Q4 2020"

""Now, 75% of what's now a $450 million to $500 million number is a significant number and a significant increase. That leaves 25% of the business to be service-related in that segment that we haven't been in. We're not prepared yet to put any specific numbers out." — McCord Christensen – CEO, PetIQ"

"The Xerox board includes several long-tenured directors – the last vestige of the “old guard” – who are a daily reminder of Xerox’s ignoble past under the leadership of former CEO Ursula Burns (who in 2014 was ranked number 4 on Time Magazine’s list of “9 CEOs With the Absolute Worst Reputations”)."

"It’s the recruiting, meaning bringing new distributors into our company, which is the most vital part of our bloodstream. We bring new distributors in – we grow. It’s that simple. It’s that simple. And the company has built its whole reputation, its whole life, on recruiting. — CEO Michael Johnson"

"CEO appears to mislead CNBC’s audience by saying no lockups have expired. The PIPE shares were not technically under a “lockup” but the company was required to register them for re-sale, which it did effective Dec 31, prior to which they couldn’t be sold – in reality identical to a lockup expiry."

"Perion has perpetuated a biography that CEO Gerstel is a successful technology executive having been the CEO of numerous companies such as Panya, Nolio, Syneron Medical and Zend Technologies. His appointment press release focused on what he has done since 1999, but no mention of what came before."

"CEO Wilson continues to spend a portion of his time managing his Cuattro businesses. We are puzzled why Heska shareholders allow this distraction to persist when the Company is supposedly taking on a dominant incumbent (IDEXX), developing and launching new products, and expanding internationally?"

"We've established clear goals for the business. We have a set target of annually delivering 20% to 25% adjusted EBITDA growth, consisting of approximately 50% organic meaning economic growth, wallet share growth and pricing power and 50% from M&A. — Mr. Proud, CEO of Dye & Durham (September 2023)"

"“...I think we're approaching [the succession process at Disney] differently, and I just don't want to... it's just not something that I feel other than saying that we're aggressively pursuing succession, there's no more detail that I want to give.” — Robert A. Iger, CEO & Director, November 2023"

"“...I think we're approaching [the succession process at Disney] differently, and I just don't want to... it's just not something that I feel other than saying that we're aggressively pursuing succession, there's no more detail that I want to give.” — Robert A. Iger, CEO & Director, November 2023"

"We find this particularly brazen, as Kalo was only formed 2 weeks earlier as an entity, according to its Massachusetts corporate registry filing, which further indicates that the entity’s “Principal Offices” are Ginkgo’s headquarters, and its 3 ‘Managers’ are Ginkgo’s CEO and two Ginkgo cronies."

"I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the financing package itself. One reason, I'm not well versed in the details of the financing package as others are. But I -- obviously, Phil, we can take you offline, we can get you more comfortable with that as well going forward here. — Generac CEO"

""While the majority of products sold on our platform today are generic formulations in nature, we believe the future is one where proprietary formulations and truly personalized products not available anywhere else makes up the majority of our business." — CEO Andrew Dudum, Q2 2022 Earnings Call"

"Hackett left Riverstone’s Board to form, and become, the CEO of Alta Mesa Resources - created through a blank check company called Silver Run Acquisition Corp. II Alta Mesa fell into distress and the SEC is conducting a formal investigation into its financial controls and an "impairment charge""